On a chilly, but otherwise unusually benign evening for this event, 51 members and guests assembled at the Royal Norfolk & Suffolk Yacht Club for our annual dinner and prize-giving.  With some new faces there and a number of old friends who have been absent for a few years, it was fantastic to feel the atmosphere returning to pre-Covid levels, with people spilling out of the over-full Silver Bar as they chatted before the meal.

Once summoned to the dining room and with Grace spoken by the Vice Commodore, we were then all able to enjoy an excellent three course meal before the Commodore, Bill Clark, rose to give his after dinner speech.  As is traditional now, this was timed (thank you Tony P) and a sweepstake run, with a cash prize for the person most closely guessing the length of the time Bill was talking.  This is more-or-less what he said:

"Has somebody started the timer?  I was going to start with an apology, but, actually I don't think I should be apologising at all.  I have had a number of people come up to me, entering an auction on how long I might go on for.  Now that was OK, but some of them were a little bit too close to the knuckle.  One of them was asking Are you going to talk about trees?  [Cheering].  I won't mention him by name, David Radley.

All this comes on top of the first committee meeting - I don't know if you are aware of how hard your committee works on your behalf - this meeting was just ten days after Christmas, in the usual place, by the river in Norwich.  We got through this and that, the programme, then the Commodore's speech came up and in the background I could hear somebody - we'll call her Fred; very organised - asking Will you give me a transcript of what you are going to say?  To be honest with you, I still don't know.

Someone said 12 minutes and someone else said 8 - I was flattered that they thought I could talk for 12 minutes. [Keep going! interjected Harriet].  Then somebody else said 2 minutes, which really burst my bubble, I was quite hurt; but I am relying on Jan to nudge Tony if he does nod at all. [Comments from the floor about him needing to get the time right]  On the basis that only one person will win, that's about 47 others who are going to actually argue with me.  I seem to be more important financially at the moment than Rachel Reeves.   And, still in the background, was someone asking for a transcript.  I was trying to hold order, as you can imagine...

This was just ten days after Christmas and Christmas for me is not a very good time.  It's all that preparation for just one day.  So much work and you hide up all the food, you hide the presents, hide the treats and what have you.  So I thought, I know where I'll hide this treat and I went to hide it and there I found a dusty old pack of After Eights and a present I'd forgotten from last year.  Which was a shame because the children would have loved a kitten.  [Much laughter and applause].

So, I thought about what I should actually talk about tonight.  And then I arrived here and somebody who will remain nameless called David Radley, asked me, Are you going to talk about trees?  The truth is, I'm not going to mention trees again [Chorus of Oh yes you are; Oh no I'm not].  What I did was invest in a new book.  Well firstly I was attracted by this book Don't Get Scammed by Arthur C. Rook.

Then I bought Comfort in Small Craft by S J Housley, M.A., no less and it cost three and six.  I was reading that and got to the bit about the kitchen because we know how important food is when you are sailing.  So it says, Light stove at 7.10am - obviously they didn't go to the pub with any of the Green Wyvern crowd.  Put on the pot, then at 7.20 put in the meal; the meal thickens by 7.30 of course and 7.50 put in the salt.  I lost interest after that.

So I got my other book out.  You'll have heard of Ernest Suffling: he wrote the The Land of the Broads just pre 1900.  This came out about the same time, called How to Organise a Cruise on the Broads.  I was reading it, but I fell completely asleep and woke up at Chapter 7: Cabin Amusements for a Wet Day [much laughter].  If nobody can play the piano, there is actually a well known Norfolk board game called Nine Men's Morris, but I didn't understand the rules.

Then I moved on from there.  So, turning the page, as you do, I recently visited a boatyard in Loddon - my plan was to go fishing.  Just to explain, I got home after derigging the boat last year and discovered I was one shroud short; the only thing I could think was perhaps it had slipped off the boat into the water.  I could hear this sound in the boatshed and put my head through the door and I met one of my boating associates.  A friend of mine.  We exchanged normal pleasantries, as you do and then he said, Will there be a sweepstake?  I said I understand there probably will and then he said, Come on now, we're old chums.... Now, this is something I've heard several times tonight, but this particular person, I've always held him up as a Force Four....

He asked how long my speech would be, but I didn't know - I had no idea what I was going to say, so that's where I am.  I don't know how long I can go before Tony falls asleep [Keep going! cried Harriet] and I'm not going to talk about trees [Oh yes you are... etc.] so I'm afraid that I've come to that moment when I must say that the Yare Sailing Club have always managed without an ostentatious clubhouse, without any particularly fine arrangements; it's actually been a club of the members and very fine members; so I as your commodore humbly drink to you.  Ladies and gentlemen, please be upstanding and drink to the members and The Yare Sailing Club."

Bill was timed as speaking for exactly nine and a half minutes so new member, John Burton won the sweepstake with his guess of 9:25.  We then moved on to the prizegiving with the photographic competition winner being announced first.  There was a bumper entry of 20 pictures this year, with Julia being commended for two of hers and the prize going to Michelle Thompson.  Jonathan spoke for a while about the background to the prize before presenting it.

There were two new trophies this year; firstly the Vixen Trophy for the overall winning boat at our July regatta with a handicap of 10% plus, provided they have not otherwise won the event.  This went to Pan, who actually finished in 6th place, as Vixen herself had won overall.  (In future, this open trophy will be presented at the conclusion of the regatta).  The committee had made the decision to replace the Puck Trophy, which is now in a poor condition and are very grateful to Andy Garnham, the current owner of Puck, for presenting a replacement.  As before, this is for the highest placed YSC boat in the Cecil Howard Memorial Race and, by coincidence, was also won by Pan. [Historical note of interest: Cecil himself owned both Puck and Pan, so all very appropriate].

Of the series trophies, the Luna Barometer was won by Morning Calm; the Hiawatha Prize for high handicap boats in the Club Championship by Modwena and the Wherry Trophy for the overall Club Championship went to Vixen.  There then remained only the raffle, ably drawn by Terry, with Adrian's assistance to keep him straight on the colours.  The £60 hamper went to Kate Hammond.

Many members then took advantage of the late bar, open until 12.30 by special arrangement and continued to enjoy each others company until closing time.